Author Archives: kieron

The choice for Progress

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The Progress faction has managed, to its own advantage, to be two conflicting things at once: both a privately funded, externally directed think-tank, and at the same time an internal pressure group influencing party decisions. But now, Schrödinger’s box is being opened, and Progress has a stark choice to make about its future

First published here on LabourList

GMB Congress in Brighton passed a motion raising concerns over the Progress faction in the Labour Party

You may have read some commentary recently about a dastardly GMB plot to strip members of Progress, a faction operating within the Labour Party, of their party membership.

Despite all the bluster, one thing is clear: there is no such move to expel anyone from the party. GMB members certainly have expressed their displeasure at Progress, in the context of a motion passed at GMB Congress. That motion didn’t call for the organisation to be banned, but it did raise concerns over its sources of funding, its involvement in internal Labour Party decision-making, and its efforts to undermine Labour’s Leader and candidates.

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50 words for money

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A growing number of voices are calling for the Labour Party to separate the idea of social progress from the ideas of money and public spending. It can’t be done – the Labour Party needs to talk about money unless wants to give up the goal of a fairer society

First published here on Labourlist

Like it or not, the Labour Party needs to talk about this

Us Brits are supposed to go all coy at the mere mention of the word. But I’m getting a bit sick of being told to stop talking about money.

The latest effort, by Labour MP Gregg McClymont and academic Ben Jackson, calls on Labour to avoid “a simple defence of the public sector and public spending.” Instead, Labour should focus on growth policies which aren’t going to need “significant” amounts of extra public moolah. (Incidentally, despite their conclusions, their historical analysis is well worth a read.) Blue Labour academic Jon Wilson also said earlier this month that we in the Labour Party needed to get over our “money fetish.”

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The Left needs more focus on the EU

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Left-wing eurosceptics are letting right-wing politicians off the hook. Rather than lazily blaming "the EU" for right-wing decisions, we should direct our criticism at the politicians responsible and focus on electing left-wing ones in their place

First published here on Labourlist.

Left-wing eurosceptics blame "the EU" for things that right-wing politicians - like this one - have done at EU level

“Osborne to cut paid holidays to boost growth.”

It’s not too difficult to imagine that headline, given the current Government. They have already proposed to help employers to sack workers, made it harder to take employers to tribunal and threatened maternity leave. So what’s stopping them going further?

The answer, of course, is an EU law. Though many workers are still unaware of it, many of our rights at work, including our right to paid holiday, are guaranteed by laws at EU level. So it’s not really very surprising that Cameron has targeted this area for a “repatriation of powers,” as he puts it. The rhetoric is all about national sovereignty; the intentions are all economic.

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Credit rating agencies remind us that the financial system needs Co-operative solutions

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Responsibility is a core co-operative value. We need credit rating agencies, like our banks, to be responsible, to encourage others to act responsibly, and to act in the interests of investors and ordinary people. That’s why we need a co-operative credit rating agency

First published on the Co-operative Party website.

Standard & Poor's downgrade of US sovereign debt received much attention, despite the firm's poor record

What it must be like to be so powerful.

Imagine piping up one morning with your opinion of the United States’ public finances – and seeing it instantly reported, in hysterical tones, around the world. The BBC’s business editor trumpets, this “matters,” whilst few reports are critical of your analysis. Before long, a hashtag surfaces on Twitter, and problems are caused for US foreign relations. And financial markets are expected to react to your criticism – making it potentially self-fulfilling.

That, of course, is how Standard & Poor’s, a credit rating agency (CRA), must have felt this weekend, when it ‘downgraded’ its opinion on the safety of US government debt. The firm demonstrated that, along with its ‘big three’ rivals Moody’s and Fitch, it still has astonishing influence over the world economy. Few government ministers, central bankers or journalists even come close.

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We need to make education more equal

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It’s time to end the culture of blame on schools in working-class areas. Only limited gains can be made by changing the way these schools are run. Real improvements in education will come from a more equal school system, where students from different backgrounds attend school together

This is an excellent post by Dr Gena Merrett over on Labour Rose. Well worth reading! Follow Gena on Twitter here

Dr Gena Merrett

This week, I finally got round to reading Michael Gove’s speech to the National College for School Leadership. In the same week, I have been writing a document about creating a strategic vision for school improvement. Uncannily, the theme of the ‘moral purpose of education’ ran through both.

When Gove says what unites educational professionals is ‘the belief that lives can be transformed by what goes on in schools,’ there is little to argue against him since, when students are from areas of high deprivation and low aspirations, their education is their only hope to attain a better life. On the same lines, I have said that a school’s strategic vision must be based on core values and a clear moral purpose with the attainment, progress and well-being of the learner at its very centre.

► Continue reading We need to make education more equal on Labour Rose

Why the Left should love Europe

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The European Union is a political system. Like any political system, it can do left-wing or right-wing things, depending on who’s running it. But some of the major problems we face will not be solved by nation-states alone. The left’s response should be to organise itself in the EU, not to abolish it

It's you

It’s a funny thing, the European Union.

It’s an evil machine imposing low spending, liberalisation and all manner of other right-wing economic policies. Yet it’s also an evil machine imposing high spending, red tape and all manner of other left-wing economic policies. Both at the same time – no mean feat. That’s, like, quantum.

Of course, in reality it’s neither of those things. Calling the European Union “right-wing” is like calling the British political system “right-wing” (or “left-wing” for that matter). It doesn’t really make sense. The people currently running it can be one or the other, but the system is just the system. Within it, right-wing and left-wing governments come and go.

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What’s the future of the working class? A review of Owen Jones’ ‘Chavs: the demonisation of the working class’

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Owen Jones’ book is a brilliant, moving account of how the working class have been disempowered and blamed for their own situation by both Tories and New Labour. But it could have been braver in acknowledging that Britain today is riddled with class but no longer has any classes. We should also be clear that if (when!) we eliminate all of the problems identified in this book, it will be the end of class altogether

Owen Jones' 'Chavs: the demonisation of the working class'

OK, I admit that I’ve overindulged myself a bit here. This is a long post. The best defence I can offer is that Owen Jones’ book Chavs: the demonisation of the working class delves into the very most important issues facing British society. It’s worth looking at closely.

Chavs is a brilliant account of what has happened in British society since the 1980s. Ignore the sensationalised way it has been marketed, with a provocative title and a Burberry cap on the cover. This book explains how the decline of industry destroyed the structure of working-class communities and took away economic opportunities; it describes how the political and media establishments, under both Tory and New Labour governments, have blamed the working class for their own plight and even mocked them for it; and it explains how the social problems we see in these communities are the results, not the causes, of their situation.

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A radical Labour Party, not a conservative one, will beat this Government

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Blue Labour is right to call itself “conservative.” But to beat this Government, we need a radical alternative to Tory economic policy, not meek acceptance of it. Blue Labour has nothing to offer

My blog for the launch of Next Generation Labour, a new group of younger Labour Party members who would like to see the party re-elected with a progressive programme that can deliver social justice. More on Next Generation Labour

This is no time to accept the status quo.

People are right to be angry when their wages are shrinking, two and a half million are unemployed, and George Osborne’s budgets have made them suffer – whilst at the other end of the scale, bank chiefs have had pay rises of more than a third. Meanwhile, David Cameron’s Big Society is giving communities responsibility for their own services, whilst withdrawing support from the state. Those with the means will be able to take over their local libraries, start their own schools and draw up their own neighbourhood development plans. Those without, won’t.

Yet against this backdrop, a bunch of academics has proposed Blue Labour. A set of “conservative socialist” ideas, it expresses deep scepticism over Labour’s “state-driven, redistribution-driven, equality-driven” agenda since 1945. It wants Labour to get back to its earlier traditions of co-operatism and labour organisation, and a more “relational” style of politics.

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My submission to Refounding Labour

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This is my hurriedly tapped-out submission to the Refounding Labour consultation. Some of it is repetitive, as the reponse forms are divided into discrete sections and many important points cut across them.

Feel free to copy and paste any of this into your own submission if you’re in a hurry. Follow the links below to make your submission online.

Also see my earlier post on the proposals to open leadership elections to non members.

The deadline is today, Friday 24th June 2011!

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Harriet Harman is right. Are we radical enough to support her?

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If the Labour Party was meritocratic, we would already have full representation of women. We don’t – so if we want to live up to our name as a radical party, we have to keep looking for ways to achieve it. We should adopt Harriet Harman’s rule for the deputy leadership

Harriet Harman has called for a rule to ensure either the Labour leader or deputy leader is always a woman

At times, people in the Labour Party can be downright conservative.

Deputy leader Harriet Harman has renewed her call for a rule which would mean that either the leader or deputy leader of the Labour Party must always be a woman. With the backing of the Women’s PLP, she has submitted this to Refounding Labour, the consultation on the party constitution launched by Ed Miliband and Peter Hain.

The reaction from some parts of the party has been… well, reactionary. One of the more concerning comments came from a cowardly anonymous “insider,” who is reported as asking, “Is the Labour Party really going to move from being a meritocracy and democracy and embrace these proposals?”

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